Time Off From Killing You
by ratedaddicted
Summary: Vaan has a surprise in store for his party: a forced, but lightly agreed to anyway holiday in the sun... with the usual unexpected problems.


"I feel sick."

The thin, weak voice came from the shape of a trembling Ashe as everyone ran towards the safety of the large orange crystal at the other end of the corridor. Vaan, too, was wounded. And his hands looked as if Lhusu were mines for coal, because of his use of several warp motes and his tumbling and falling a couple of times during the fight. Ashe had been thrown over a trap by a mantis' attack, but luckily she had been the only one to get sapped and blinded, and was now carried hurriedly by a most peaceful-looking Basch. The sounds of their quick steps echoed down the magicite-strewn path.

"Vaan..." asked Balthier through heavy breaths. "Vaan! ...you... potions... two?!"

The last word came out a bit too high-pitched for his tastes and the gunman frowned, but no one seemed to notice either fact.

"Uh... huh..."

Finally, Vaan reached out to touch the crystal. They all stopped and took deep breaths as it recharged them, savoring the feeling of mixed joy, pleasure and release that it induced...

"OW!"

After the sound of a smack and a yelp, Penelo unclenched her fists and shook the hand that hurt, throwing Vaan another angry glare.

"Ow!", he echoed. He rubbed the hit spot, just above his stomach. "Why'd'you do that, Penelo?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry Vaan, I didn't mean for you to get hurt. Why don't you use a POTION?"

Her pigtails jumped a bit as she leaned towards him to scream out the last word.

Vaan seemed to relax a bit. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned, beginning to talk halfway the process, totally immune to her burning stare.

"Nah, I'll just use the crystal again."

The girl rolled her eyes, while Basch gently but firmly pushed her away from Vaan. The young Rabanastran looked up at the well-built man in front of him with curious eyes.

"What? What did I do?". Vaan shook his left leg a little to ease a little the tension that was building up. They were all kind of... glaring at him.

"Vaan, you were responsible with our item supply. We left you alone at the West gate when you insisted in teleporting yourself to Rabanastre. You said you'd pass by Migelo's and pick up everything we needed and we gave you 2.500 gil for the whole thing, as we calculated the price for all the items we had written on the list."

He stopped, allowing the young man to catch up. Instead, he noticed how his eyes had grown large. He seemed completely oblivious.

"You still have the list. Right? Vaan?"

"List?"

Ashe's voice ripped through the air.

"List! The list I had written with Penelo!"

They all held silent as Balthier approached the other two men with lazy, slow steps.

"Never mind such trivial things as a list or some potions..."

"Some potions? How about the Phoenix's and Eye Drops we ran out of?", Ashe interrupted, "Right now I can tell you we've only got Smelling Salts, a Warp Mote and two Knots of Rust in our backpack."

Balthier's mind flew back to the days before, that they had spent hunting panthers and marlboros for loot in Golmore. Good fun, and a great deal of money out of it too. It was wonderful, with all of Fran's refusal to fight and annoyed grumbling alongside. It didn't disturb her when they killed creatures of the jungle that stood right in their way, or the creatures that attacked them, but when they all went on a killing spree, cutting down weak beasts that could now barely fight back to skin them, she grew more and more sickened and infuriated. They would hunt over a hundred panthers one after the other, luring them and then killing them with a single hit.

"We had no idea Vaan hadn't brought what he was supposed to! Fran's gone, and Penelo can't cast white magicks forever! We need to stock up too!"

"We'll take care of that as soon as we get to civilized grounds, princess darling. And we'll get there... as soon as Vaan shares the location of the money with us."

A long silence fell over the party, as if they had just then realized the absence of a quite substantial amount of gil. Double that amount and you can get a good accessory or... something. 2.500 vanishing into Vaan's hands... It wouldn't have been difficult to gain that amount multiplied a good couple of times, but that would've meant another full day of hunting and they had had just about enough.

"Hey, hey... don't get all mad and stuff, I have a great idea!"

"Umm. No, really, Vaan, where's the money?". This time Penelo had asked the question, but all of her anger seemed to have been replaced by pure curiosity.

Vaan lifted his arms above his head again and began to walk slowly towards the exit. When he saw that they were all walking alongside him, and that they had calmed down a bit, he sat down in the middle of the path and gestured for the rest to do the same. Penelo dropped on her bum, to his left, and Balthier sat a bit farther from him, to his right (he began to clean the metal of his gun, checking its shine from time to time in the faint light). Basch occupied the place facing Vaan, to have a clear view of the entrance, and Ashe sat next to him, on a vest he had laid down.

When they all sat down forming a circle - with a small malformation in Balthier's distance - Vaan shrugged.

"Guys... we've been, uh, working very hard y'know. All the fighting and running, and all of these... discoveries and progress we've made", he looked towards Ashe for a moment, and then looked back at them all, "have made us kind of... stressed out."

Penelo sighed and put a slightly cold hand on her friend's left shoulder. Vaan noticed the faint flowery smell that raised from it and couldn't help but wonder, not unimpressed, where or when she had time to buy herself perfume. "I'm sorry I hit you, Vaan, and that I... yelled at you. You're right, we are tired. But what can we do? We can't just..."

"Yeah we can!"

For the first time, Balthier took his eyes away from his gun and showed interest in what Vaan was saying. He lowered the weapon from his field of vision, clearly placing it second in his priority list. Everyone was watching now, with a mixture of curiosity and fear boiling in their chests at the thought of Vaan having a(nother) great idea. The enthusiastic grin on the boy's face usually meant trouble.

"I saved up money on my own to arrange a dream holiday!!" he cheered.

Vaan was determined to go through all of this as quickly as possible. Make them all sigh, get all exasperated and annoyed, let them try to change anything. They couldn't. A strange, malicious grin crawled on his face and his eyes narrowed:

"And it's all already paid and spoken for. You cannot interfere."

They all looked at him in an awkward, surprised silence. This wasn't the type of behavior one would expect from Vaan.

"You..." started Penelo, obviously awed. "You kept this a secret from us, Vaan? All alone?"

"Oh, of course not! I mean, Fran's already there!"

A loud clash was heard as Balthier threw all he was holding and got up on his feet.

"Fran's already WHERE?! You mean Fran's not gone to..."

"Fran plotted with Vaan?!", gasped Ashe, while Basch's expression only showed some sort of amused intrigue. He got up and went next to the gunman.

"I am sure Fran and Vaan have made a fine choice for us. And you know we can all enjoy a good holiday."

Ashe was beginning to protest behind him, so he raised his voice just a bit. "Especially some of us, who have been put through more stress. The Lady Ashe, for example. There is no harm in a well-deserved break."

Penelo got up too, not even noticing the sad face Vaan made upon seeing everyone break his circle. She went next to the two and stood silent for as long as Basch talked, though clearly also having something to say. When the man finished pleading for Vaan's arrangement, she cleared her throat and looked at Balthier.

"Umm, I'm sure Fran meant to tell you. And, I'm sure she's safe... wherever she is." she said, slightly disturbed by the leading man's odd reaction. Of course, they all knew how those two trusted each other, but such fiery responses from Balthier were hard to trigger.

"Fran barely talks to me... Or any of us." he answered after a moment. "And she arranged a holiday with Vaan?"

The fire in his eyes spoke of the most dangerous anger, but his voice barely held traces of any ill feeling. "Where is she?" he asked on a more commanding tone, this time turning his head towards Vaan.

The young man jumped up and shook the dust off the backside of his pants.

"You didn't let me finish. I was about to tell you, but you all started to talk to each other and... oh well. We chose..."

_"They chose..."_, he heard a mesmerized echo from Pen, and then continued,

"...a neat, brand new resort near Balfonheim!"

The first signs of irritation began to show in Basch. He took a small step forward.

"I will not allow Lady Ashe to shed her clothes in such a perilous place!"

"Basch! I do not intend on ...shedding anything!", the princess retorted through Vaan and Penelo's mad giggles. Meanwhile Balthier had regained his composure and had taken a more proud, collected posture. Ashe was infuriated, but it wasn't clear if it was Basch's use of the words 'allow Lady Ashe' (allow her? no one needed to allow her to do anything!) or him mentioning her getting naked that had done the trick. Probably a mix of both.

"Aww Ashe, what do you mean? Of course we'll wear _deux-pièces_!..."

Penelo put her hands together and her eyes took on a dreamy look,

"...we'll swim, we'll feel the sand burning the soles of our feet... we'll bathe in the sun! Oh I can't wait! We just HAVE to buy swimming suits! We can use the money we'll get from that lady we killed the Antlion for!"

Balthier took a few steps towards them and breathed in audibly, exhaling pure negation.

"No. I don't suppose we went through all this to gain money for some pairs of women's underwear?"

"Um, it's okay guys. I still have gil left for all of this small stuff. I mean, we took care of everything!" answered Vaan, "I'm sure you'll find everything you'll need there! Let's just go now. I hate these sort of places."

A couple of spine-chilling shrieks were heard as he finished talking.

"Yeah, I hate these sort of places."


End file.
